


Reference

by milkofthebutter



Category: No Fandom
Genre: Hyperventilation, I mean, LITERALLY ME JUST WRITING THINGS DOWN SO I DON'T FORGET THEM, Needles, Not a Story, Passing Out, Shock, it's whatever, reference, you can read if you really want
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-03-16 02:08:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13626324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/milkofthebutter/pseuds/milkofthebutter
Summary: things that have happened to me as references for experiences that may be necessary for writing a book.





	1. Passing Out

Passing out occurs when there is little to no blood flow to the brain. It often happens after you get your blood drawn, have a surgery, or get injured.

What happens before passing out (more or less in order):

  * VERY PALE COMPLEXTION
  * nauseous (varying degrees)
  * body feels lighter than normal, head may feel heavy
  * don't have complete sense of awareness
  * dizzy
  * brain doesn't register questions, doesn't register how to answer them
  * room swims before eyes
  * high temperature
  * sounds get fuzzy
  * loss of eyesight (often blinking a lot to try to restore it)
  * Pass out



What to do:

  * Lay person on the ground, feet raised
  * put cool, damp towel on forehead and neck
  * aim fans at face/body
  * call name of person gently
  * lightly shake if possible and if it won't upset injuries



What happens while and after you wake up:

  * sound first, fuzzy, fades in and out
  * blurry/black vision, slowly fades in, bright colors first
  * blinking to clear vision
  * REALLY HIGH TEMPERATURE, LIKE BURNING BRAIN CELLS
  * sweaty
  * body begins to feel normal again
  * returning awareness/lucidity 
  * forgetfulness for a bit afterwards



 

What happened:

After the nurse pulled the needle out of my arm, he wrapped the surgical tape around the cotton to secure it to my arm. He was funny. He told a bunch of vampire jokes. He also started talking about how he hated the jocks that always teased girls about needles, and then ended up passing out themselves.

Someone in the Leadership class was waiting for the funny nurse to be done. He escorted me to the refreshment table.

"My knight in shining armor!" I called out as he left. He looked over his shoulder and smiled at me. Cute.

Multiple people asked me if I was doing okay. Yes, I was. A little bit woozy, but that was to be expected. I took an apple juice, Nutter Butter package, and water bottle. I had finished my juice and was a couple crackers in when I started to feel nauseous. 

"If you ever start to feel dizzy, lay your head on the table." A girl informed me. 

Hmm. Maybe I should do that. I laid on the table, head in my folded arms for a minute. I was eyeing the trash can a couple steps away. I didn't think I was nauseous enough to actually throw up yet, but I was getting there. I didn't want to throw up. Not because throwing up sucks, but because if I did, it would ruin my perfect score of "never throwing up anywhere except the toilet."

I buried my face in my arms once again. 

Someone called my name. I looked up, but didn't see anything. I blinked a couple times, trying to get my eyes to focus. Eventually the outline of the girl appeared in my vision. I laid my head back down. I could hear people talking, but I couldn't hear what they had to say. The sounds blurred together. I was too out of it to care.

The teacher in charge of leadership called my name. I lifted my head once again and looked in her direction.

"Holy crap, she's pale," I heard her say. I didn't care. I laid back down on my arms. 

I felt someone grab my arm. "Yeah, look I can feel her sweat."

Someone was calling my name again. The sound was fuzzy, but I opened my eyes anyway. Blinking away the darkness, one of the nurses loomed over me. What was I doing on the floor? Oh.

"Did I pass out?" I murmured.

"Yeah," the nurse replied.

I laid in silence. There were cold napkins on my forehead and neck. They felt really good. 

Someone turned on some fans. They also felt really good. Other than the one fan that kept blowing my hair into my eye.

"So did I fall over?" This was the only explanation I could think of as to why I was on the ground rather than seated, like I remembered.

"No, we lifted you down."

Well frick. That's embarrassing.

"Where is your juice?"

I could barely think to answer. The thoughts weren't coming clearly. 

"On the table." I pointed. My arms were still too light for my body. "But I think I drank it all." My arm flopped back onto the ground. 

The nurse got me another juice and a straw so I could drink while laying down. Somehow I managed to place the can next to my head, with the straw in my mouth. Even though I didn't want to, I drank it quickly. 

My arms quickly grew cold. Another student put my trench coat over me like a blanket. She said I was cute. I grinned at her. Of course I am.

I laid on the ground, feet up for another twenty minutes. A friend kept me company. She had wanted to donate, but she couldn't because she wasn't heavy enough. Afterward, we signed out of the blood drive and went back to class.


	2. Going Into Shock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What it feels like to go into shock (also a bit of hyperventilation)

Going into shock is something that occurs when you have been through something traumatic. The definition of traumatic can differ from person to person. For me, this experience was when my veins went into shock because of an IV needle, causing the rest of my body to do so as well.

What happens (not in order):

  * room goes out of focus
  * brain focuses on one thing only
  * breathing rate increases 
  * difficulty breathing/getting enough air (hyperventilation)
  * heart rate increases
  * become very pale
  * inability to concentrate
  * difficulty following instructions/listening
  * very high temperature
  * sweating
  * inability to move eyes (can only look at one thing)
  * inability to move in general
  * low blood pressure
  * sounds may be blurry
  * inability to talk



What to do to treat shock:

  * feet up, head down
  * place blanket around person, keep warm
  * can dab/wipe sweat away
  * give instructions to person on how to breathe (deeper, slower) in a calm, firm voice



What it feels like coming out of shock

  * slowly regain control of breathing
  * ability to move eyes and body returns
  * ability to hear returns
  * body cools down
  * ability to talk returns



What happened:

We thought I had meningitis. I didn't really know what that meant, but it wasn't a good thing. My mom drove us to the hospital where we checked in. I was given a mask and directed to a room. The doctor was in a couple minutes later, and he determined that I did, in fact, not have meningitis. However, he wanted to test my blood because I obviously had _something_. He gave instructions to the nurses and left to care for some other patient. The nurse at my bedside decided to give me fluids to lessen a raging headache pounding in my temples. There was another woman in training, shadowing the first nurse.

"I completely understand the learning curve and all," my mother, a nurse herself, said to the first nurse. "But this is not the daughter I would have you practice on."

She was referring to the nurse in training, who was probably going to stick me with the needle for practice. I appreciated my mother preventing that.

The nurse nodded and prepared the needle. Now, if you have never had an IV, those needles are massive. They have to be able to fit the molecules of the fluids through the hollow center, and in order to do that, they have to be bigger than needles for simply drawing blood. I haven't had a big problem with needles for a couple years, but ever since my episode in the school gymnasium where I passed out from lack of blood after a blood drive, I was a bit warier. I still did my best to stay relaxed as she pressed the needle into my right arm.

All was well. All was fine.

Until she tried to put the needle all the way in my arm. It wouldn't go in. She pushed a little bit more. Now it hurt. Having a sharp surgical steel thing poking around inside of your veins is not a pleasant experience. I was rapidly growing more tense. The nurse pulled the needle back out. That felt just plain weird. She tried again. And failed.

As it turned out, my veins have lots of valves in them. This basically means that there are walls every centimeter or so along my vein that a needle as big as that one could not go through. We had not previously known this, as the only other time I had needles in me was to have my blood drawn or for the anesthetic to have my wisdom teeth out.

The rule of thumb with nurses and needles is that if the nurse sticks you three times and fails, that nurse can no longer try to stick you. They have to get another nurse. So as this nurse was on her last attempt, she moved to my other arm. By this point, I was freaking out inside. Can you blame me? I had just had a needle almost all the way into my arm twice, only to have it pulled out. As that nurse stuck me on her last try, the needle went in. I was relieved. We could get this nightmare over with. But no. While the needle was inside my arm, the fluids still wouldn't enter my veins. Another valve was blocking the way.

"We can try to blow her valves," the nurse said.

This startled me. Blow my valves? As in out? Nope. No way in hell. But she started to do it anyway.

Pain shot up my arm. It was all I could focus on. I could feel myself start to slip. No. I refused to pass out. They would think I was weak! So I decided to stare at the wall. There was this line in the pattern of the wall, and I studied that thing like I had a final in my worst class that I had not studied a moment for.

I could feel my mother stand, but didn't look away. She sat back down.

Something was touching my forehead. I didn't know what it was. I didn't care. _Just_ _don't pass out!_ I thought.

"Breathe," I faintly heard the nurse say.

Oh. I was breathing rather fast, wasn't I? And shallowly. 

The next breath in, I tried with all my willpower to breathe deeper. My breath stuttered as it went in, but it was no deeper or longer than the last. I did it again. Success! It wasn't much, but it was bigger. 

I had no clue how long this went on, but I could feel myself becoming more aware of my surroundings. The rough thing that was touching my forehead was my mother, dabbing my sweat. I could finally look away from the line in the wall.

My arm still hurt. A lot. Once again, the nurse had failed. There was no way that I was going through that again. I think the nurse could tell.

"Hold on," she said. "Let me see if the doctor prescribed her any medications. If not, we just won't do an IV."

To say I was pissed was an understatement. They literally didn't even know if I had to be stuck with that massive _freaking_ needle, they just decided to because I had a headache? I could take a headache. By now, my arm hurt worse than my head! And lo and behold, no medications. There was literally no purpose to that whole ordeal. The nurse called over another, male this time, as per the rule. He took a blood sample within a couple of seconds with a butterfly needle. Ten minutes later they came back to report that I had a UTI, gave me antibiotics, and sent me on my (less than) merry way.


End file.
